Thief steals geriatric dog's wheelchair

This thief may have meant their actions as a practical joke, but it showed they have a cold heart.

"It takes a special kind of crazy to do something like this," Franklin County Deputy Jerrod Fredericks said.

That something was steal a 10-year-old dog's wheelchair when it was attached to the dog's body.

Lou and Jeffrey Baker contacted the authorities at 11:25 a.m. Saturday to say the wheelchair, which has a value of $250, was missing.

"She was just there by herself with none of the hardware on her so we knew someone had taken it off of her," Lou Baker said. "I think it was someone thinking it was a funny prank and it wasn't funny at all. She was left laying on the cold ground because she can't get around."

She said Sammy, a 50-pound boxer, began to use the wheelchair last autumn after developing a progressive muscular disease that cost him the use of his back legs. Sammy, who is 10 years old, was outside Saturday morning alone when the chair went missing, Lou Baker said.

Jeffrey Baker noticed it was missing and alerted police. The family was upset and even law enforcement officers were taken aback by the callousness of the thief.

The Bakers and Sammy live next to The Spirit trail. They suspected someone thought it would be a fun prank, knowing Sammy is disabled and a friendly dog.

As a result, they suspected the thief would dump the wheelchair along the trail. Sure enough, the family found it about an eighth of a mile from the house by some cedar trees.

The wheelchair still had the seven straps intact but a pin had been removed that made it easy to get the device off Sammy's body.

Sammy is one of four boxers.

"She's our family companion. Been here a long time," Lou Baker said.

While she's mad at the person responsible, she is also grateful that Sammy came through unscathed.

"We were lucky," Lou Baker said.

The family is vowing to keep a much closer eye on Sammy in the days to come.

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